USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Cambridge > The biography of a church; a brief history of Christ Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts > Part 7
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In The Conquest of Fear Basil King tells how his fear of the future caused such incessant worry and despondency that he at one point decided to give up completely. He then tells how on the very day he reached that decision the spirit of God reached out to him through a "man I had never before seen." Let me quote his own words:
"In the light of what my new friend told me I saw I had been too busily engaged in directing my life for myself. I was like a child who hopes to make a smoothly working ma- chine go still more smoothly by prodding it. I couldn't leave it alone. It had not occurred to me that the course of that life was God's own business, and that if I could follow the psalmist's advice and 'commit my way unto him he would bring it to pass.'"
In a word, he learned in his own experience the meaning of surrendering one's life and consecrating one's future to God without reservation. To quote again :
1 Basil King, The Conquest of Fear, Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., 1921, p. 72 f.
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"This was nothing new; it was only new to me.2 . . . I had hitherto thought of trust as a gritting of the teeth and a stiffening of the nerves to believe and endure. ... Gradu- ally, in the light of the experience sketched above, I came to see it as simply the knowledge that the supreme com- mand rules everything to everyone's advantage.3 Within forty-eight hours, with no action on my part except (the Metanoia,) the change in my point of view, all misunder- standings had been cleared away.4 To feel that I could give up being responsible for results and devote myself to my work was in itself a relief. If I tried to 'trust in the Lord and do good' - by which I suppose is meant doing my duty to the best of my small ability - He would look after the rest. ... I was not working on what our modern idiom neatly summarizes as 'my own' - I was His agent." 5
Through this spiritual experience, Basil King was born again. He achieved a confidence in God that gave him victory over his suffering and made him a living witness to the power of the gospel of Christ. The light of his witness shone forth not only while he was rector, but also to all who knew him during the twenty-eight years in which he continued to live in the parish after his retire- ment.
2 Ibid., p. 75.
3 Basil King, The Conquest of Fear, Doubleday, Garden City, N.Y., 1921, pp. 81-82.
4 Ibid., p. 80. 5 Ibid., p. 75.
CHAPTER IX
PRESCOTT EVARTS 1900-1929 TRUE SHEPHERD OF THE FLOCK
WITH THE COMING of the Rev. Prescott Evarts as rector of Christ Church in December, 1900, the parish was to enter upon a new era of harmonious growth and develop- ment. The new rector, forty-one years of age and a graduate of Harvard, had already shown how splendidly a parish could grow under his leadership. He had three qualities, consecration, the ability to work hard, and an unfailing love of people, which made him a tremendously effective servant of the Kingdom. He had done an out- standing piece of work as rector of Zion Church, Wap- pingers Falls, New York, and as Archdeacon of Duchess County. Mr. Evarts was the first rector of Christ Church since Dr. Hoppin whose primary interest lay in the development of the life and work of the parish. He was particularly well-equipped both in interest and ability not only to organize the work of the parish but to enable it to achieve a position of leadership in the support of the work of the Diocese and the National Church. He was an able administrator, and a born pastor whose broad sympathies endeared him to all kinds and condi- tions of men who had the good fortune to know him. Among his many assets was his wife, Emily, who aided him in every phase of his ministry and particularly in the
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organization and guidance of the women's work of the parish, in which her initiative and enthusiasm won her the affectionate esteem of the whole parish.
Finding that during the long illness of his predecessor, Dr. King, the parish had been incurring annual deficits, Mr. Evarts immediately inaugurated a new scheme of giving in which the needs of the parish, the church school, the Diocese, and the missionary work of the Church were all brought simultaneously to the attention of the parish. So contagious was his own enthusiasm, not to mention his example of personal generosity, that at the end of his first year in the parish Mr. Frederick Stanhope Hill, the treasurer, was able to announce a surplus for the first time in many years. Thus did Mr. Evarts lay the cornerstone for a steady growth in the parish's financial resources which were to give new strength and stability to the parish. In the year before he became rector, the parish raised $6573 for the parish and $700 for the Diocese and missionary work of the Church; by the end of his rectorship the parish's budget was $28,000 annually, of which $7500 was given to the Diocese and missionary work of the Church. Above and beyond this, the parish gave its support to many other good causes, such as the Church Pension Fund, the Near East Relief Fund, and the Japanese Relief Fund following the earthquake in 1923.
Mr. Evarts also called the attention of the parish to the need for greater endowment and was instrumental in raising the total amount of the Wardens' Funds from $35,000 to $98,000. One of Mr. Evarts' great assets was his ability not only to win the loyalty of some of the ablest men in the parish but also to inspire them to give unreservedly of their time and thought to the work of the Church. Ever since the beginning of Dr. Hoppin's ministry in 1839, Christ Church had always had an un-
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usually large number of laymen who were devoted to the work of the parish. Some rectors, however, had not taken advantage of this fact. Consequently, many of the able laymen Mr. Evarts found on the vestry and other organizations of the parish did not realize what it meant to work for the Church until Mr. Evarts began to press them into service.
He was particularly fortunate in having a group of men who were keenly concerned to make the financial organ- ization of the parish more efficient in respect to the can- vass for funds, the most economical possible expenditure of the funds, and the increase and investment of the endowment funds. These men were F. Stanhope Hill, treasurer from 1896 to 1909, Hammond V. Hayes, treasurer from 1909 to 1916, Professor Joseph H. Beale, the only vestryman to serve through the entire twenty- nine years of Mr. Evarts' rectorship, Samuel F. Batchel- der, George O. G. Coale, Huntington Saville, Sturgis H. Thorndike, A. D. S. Bell, and his son, Stoughton Bell. As a result of the work largely initiated by these men, the parish led the Diocese and indeed the National Church in modernizing the methods of financing the work of a parish. In 1909, under the guidance of the Finance Committee, Christ Church became the first parish in the Diocese, if not in the country, to conduct an every mem- ber canvass and to use duplex envelopes in the raising of its funds. In the same year, Mr. H. V. Hayes became treasurer, and in accordance with the statement of Mr. Stoughton Bell, "he (Mr. Hayes) immediately put the Parish financial books on such a businesslike basis that they later became the model for the Diocese." In ad- dition, in order to give greater emphasis to the missionary work of the Church, a separate missionary treasurership was created which continued to serve until 1943, when the missionary giving was on such a firm foundation that
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it was possible and more convenient to combine all the financial transactions of the parish under one treasurer.
Organizational Life of the Parish
Soon after Mr. Evarts became rector, the number of communicants passed the five hundred mark, the number of baptized persons increased to more than one thousand, and thirteen parish organizations reported at the annual meeting. The women's organizations, of which there were five, guided by Mrs. Evarts, grew by leaps and bounds.
Mr. Evarts was always cognizant of the opportunity and obligation of the parish to minister to Episcopal students at Harvard. For years the Episcopal students at the University belonged to "the St. Paul's Society of Harvard in the Parish of Christ Church, Cambridge." The Society held a reception for the new Episcopal stu- dents in the fall and held meetings every Sunday and on holy days for students throughout the academic year. As the parish grew, the religious work with students of necessity was entrusted more and more to the assistant ministers. There were a succession of these, serving the parish as a rule on two year terms. By 1921 the student work had grown to such an extent that Mr. Evarts re- quested that the Rev. George Lyman Paine become associate rector and devote himself exclusively to work with students. As the vestry believed the rector needed more help in the parish, they did not accede to this request; but the fact that Mr. Evarts made it indicates that he, at least, recognized the importance of student work. Two assistant ministers served the parish for more than the usual brief period, namely, the Rev. Daniel Magruder, who was assistant for six years (1915-1921), and the Rev. Cuthbert Fowler, for seven years (1923- 1930).
One of the most important factors in the success of
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Mr. Evarts' organizational work lay in his determination to make the church school as adequate as possible. A considerable portion of his thought and energy was de- voted to it. One of his early actions on coming to the parish was to appoint a committee, whose chairman was Mr. James J. Greenough, to reorganize the school and to provide graded courses of instruction. As a result, in one year the number of pupils increased from 126 to 162 and the number of teachers from six to twenty. Christ Church led the Diocese in adopting a closely graded cur- riculum, and this plan was rapidly copied in many other parishes throughout and beyond the quarters of the Diocese.
Another important member of the committee which re- organized the church school was Mr. Frederick Gentle- man. He was also instrumental in founding a Boys' Club which flourished for many years. This club later be- came one of the first Galahad Clubs to be established in the Diocese. The Galahad Club continued until 1943, at which time Troop 12 of the Boy Scouts of America, which had been started in 1933, became the chief boys' organization in the parish with the exception of the Boys' Choir.
Missionary Zeal Essential
It was the firm conviction of Mr. Evarts that the deepening of the spiritual life of the parish was directly dependent upon the zeal of its members in bringing people to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour - in other words, upon the concern of the parish for the mis- sionary work of the Church both at home and abroad. To implement this conviction he did three things. In the first place, he formed a special Missionary Society in the church with an executive council whose purpose was "to arouse interest in the missions of the Church and to
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foster all missionary activities of the Church," with, as we have noted before, a separate treasurer. This council continued until 1943, when its functions were combined with those of the Parish Council and the Church Service League. The Missionary Society not only stimulated a large increase in giving, but it also greatly increased the interest in missionary work on the part of the members of the parish; furthermore, it blazed the trail for the estab- lishment of an organization of a more comprehensive scope, namely, the Church Service League.
Finding that just beyond the limits of the city of Cambridge was a rapidly growing community for whom no Episcopal Church was available, Mr. Evarts estab- lished a mission church there by procuring a vacant store and holding services in it. He then set to work to raise money to buy land and build a chapel. Thus, in 1908 St. Andrew's Church in Belmont was founded and the care of it became one of the primary duties of the assistant minister. When Mr. Evarts resigned as rector of the parish, the mission had so well developed that the Rev. Cuthbert Fowler resigned as assistant and became the first rector of the new church.
The third thing which Mr. Evarts did to implement the missionary concern of the parish was that of setting an example by giving of his own time and energy in serv- ing the Diocese and General Church on what are often dull but necessary committees requiring considerable arduous labor. Thus, he served for twelve years on the Diocesan Board of Missions, serving as its secretary for eight years. For six years he was Examining Chaplain of the Diocese and he was also for many years secretary for the Society for the Relief of Disabled Episcopal Clergy- men. For seven years he served on the Standing Com- mittee, and as its secretary for three years. In addition he served on the Board of the Family Society, which
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was the chief social service agency in Cambridge, and as Chairman of the Committee on the Constitution and Canons of the Diocesan Convention, as well as once serv- ing as a deputy to General Convention.
Needless to say, Mr. Evarts' concern for the work of the Diocese encouraged other members of the parish to offer to help. So it was that Prof. Joseph H. Beale could say at the celebration of Mr. Evarts' twenty-fifth anniversary as rector, "You have been the inspirer and guide of our activities, and you are responsible for the result as far
as the activities of your parishioners are concerned. The record is rather a proud one." Prof. Beale went on to tell of the number of Christ Church members serving in virtually "every important diocesan activity." Thus Prescott Evarts laid the cornerstone for the strong sup- port of the Diocese on the part of the parish which has continued until the present day, and which we are con- fident will always characterize the parish.
The Church Property
In 1910 a section was added on to the rear of the church adjoining the sacristy to afford a study and a reception room for the rector. This is the room which is now known as the vestry room plus the remainder of the section at the rear of the church building. This was a gift of Miss Blatchford and Mr. Francis C. Foster, and the plan was drawn by Charles N. Cogswell. Since the church had not been redecorated since the unfortunate Victorian decoration carried out in 1883, it was becoming more and more evident that the church needed not only thorough repainting but probably redecorating. In 1913, as a re- sult of a study by a special committee appointed by the vestry, it was recommended that the church be covered with a roughcast or stucco in order both to save the ex- pense of repainting and to carry out the original plans of
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the founders of the church. A special parish meeting was called to consider the matter. After considerable dis- cussion the question was referred to another special com- mittee of three persons; this committee, in turn, recom-
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THE INTERIOR AFTER THE RESTORATION OF 1920
mended to a meeting held the following October that the plan be abandoned as more expensive than frequent painting. Surely we all rejoice in this decision. Owing to the outbreak of World War I the following year, all plans for the redecoration of the church were dropped until 1920. In that year one of the most important
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decisions of Mr. Evarts' rectorship was made, namely, to redecorate the church along colonial lines and thereby to make it look as much like the original building as practicable. It was decided to replace the brown ex- terior with pale gray plus a white trim, to replace the gaudy colors of the interior with simple gray and white colors, such as were in the original building, and to im- prove the looks of the grounds and the approaches to the
church. Plans for the redecorating of the church by Mr. Clipston Sturgis were accepted and executed at a cost of $6500. In 1919, through the generosity of Miss Alberta Houghton and Mr. and Mrs. Francis S. Kershaw, electricity replaced gas light in the parish house, and the following year in the church, and the colors of the stained glass window over the altar were toned down.
Meanwhile, No. 1 Garden Street was purchased in 1916, and was designated as a memorial to Francis C. Foster, a layman who had been deeply devoted to the parish over so many years. For five years it was leased. In 1921 some $6000 was spent in remodeling it to make it con- venient as a rectory for Mr. Evarts and his family. In the following year a plan for the alteration of the church grounds was carried out, including the rectifying of the surface grades, the laying of brick walks, the enlargement of the carriage drive, and the correlation of the grounds with those of the new rectory.
In 1907 a slate roof replaced the wooden shingles on the church, and in 1923 a new heating plant was installed at the cost of $6500.
Brief Mentions
The mention of a number of events during Mr. Evarts' rectorship will give further evidence of the vitality of the parish life. In 1904 the choir of Christ Church was one of two suburban choirs invited to participate in the
CHURCH AND RECTORY
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opening service of the General Convention in Boston. In 1911 a gala celebration was held at the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the church building in 1761, with addresses by Bishop William Law- rence, President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard, Dean George Hodges of the Episcopal Theological School, Richard H. Dana, President of the Cambridge Historical Society, Canon Norman Tucker of Toronto, Canada, and the Rev. Alexander Mann, rector of Trinity Church, Boston. As early as 1915 the progressive and ecumenical spirit of the parish was evident in the appointment of two delegates to represent Christ Church in the new federation of the seven old Cambridge churches, which has since grown into the Harvard Square Council of Churches. Furthermore, Christ Church pioneered in 1915 in being one of the first parishes in the Diocese to give the franchise to women at parish meetings. During the war, the parish house was made the center for enter- taining the troops that were camped across the street on the Cambridge Common. Because of the shortage of coal, the church was unheated and services were held for a time in the parish house. In 1928, Christ Church became one of the first parishes to adopt the principle of a rotating vestry.
As we have already noted, one of Mr. Evarts' particular abilities was that of drawing into the working life of the parish many able laymen. In addition to those previously noted, mention should also be made of the following men whose devotion and hard work helped to make possible this splendid growth of the parish during Mr. Evarts' rectorship: Francis M. Babson, Henry R. Brigham, Frank M. Clark, Huntington P. Faxon, Ewing M. Ham- len, Thomas A. Jaggar, Francis S. Kershaw, Thomas W. Little, Morris H. Morgan, Clarence H. Poor, John H. Sturgis, Cushing Toppan, and William E. Wall.
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Cowley Fathers
During the fall of 1923, the Society of St. John the Evangelist, known as the Cowley Fathers, an order of monks within the Protestant Episcopal Church, erected within the limits of Christ Church parish a temporary wooden building as an oratory on the banks of the Charles River. In February, 1924, the secular and re- ligious press carried announcements that services were being held at the new oratory for "Harvard students, faculty and any other desirous of attending." The rector and vestry were naturally concerned lest this meant that the Cowley Fathers were planning to recruit a congregation and thus cause a division within the par- ish. In conference with the rector, a record of which was filed with the Bishop and the Standing Committee of the Diocese, Fr. Spence Burton, the superior of the order, denied any intention of establishing a congregation at the oratory in Cambridge. As a result of this understanding, a most cordial relationship was established between the parish and the order which has been happily maintained ever since. In 1936 the beautiful monastery of St. Mary and St. John replaced the small wooden oratory.
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary - 1926
On the occasion of Mr. Evarts' twenty-fifth anniversary, Dr. Basil King, who had resigned as rector owing to ill- ness in 1900 and who was still living in Cambridge, wrote, "When I gave up the Rectorship in 1900, the Parish was still struggling to get on its feet after a series of knock- down blows which had extended back over thirty or forty years. Now it is firmly established and a great factor for good in the whole community." It was indeed true that when Mr. Evarts became rector the parish was extremely weak and was not greatly advanced beyond the point at
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which Dr. Nicholas Hoppin had left it. Mr. Evarts, by his great devotion and able leadership, in slightly more than a quarter of a century had made it into a great parish which participated in and affected the life of both the community and the Diocese and which gave steady support to the missionary work of the whole Church. If one were to ask the secret of Mr. Evarts' success, one would find the answer in the fact that Mr. Evarts walked with Him "in lowly paths of service free." He was a truly great pastor and cure of souls. This fact was beauti- fully expressed by the faculty of the Episcopal Theological School in a letter written to be read to the parish on the occasion of his twenty-fifth anniversary as rector:
"We, the members of the faculty of the Episcopal Theo- logical School, desire to place on record our deep sense of appreciation of the services rendered to this community by the Rev. Prescott Evarts, for twenty-five years Rector of Christ Church. It is little to say that he has been a Rector; to say that he has been a faithful and loving pastor is to say that he has richly fulfilled the supreme work of the Chris- tian ministry. He has been a devoted shepherd of his flock. The poor have turned to him for help, or rather, he has gone to them bearing loving sympathy and an under- standing heart. All who know him have found in him a friend. Many to whom he has ministered in sickness and sorrow rise up and call him blessed. To young men in training for the Christian ministry he has set the inspiring example of one who walked with Christ, and who has car- ried the spirit of Christ into his high vocation. We wish him many more years of faithful service, and we congratu- late his Parish on the long continuance of the close and sacred relationship of Pastor and People."
Merger With St. John's Chapel
In 1868 the St. John's Chapel of the Episcopal Theo- logical School was opened for worship within a stone's
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throw of Christ Church. This, as we have seen, was the cause of considerable loss of both parishioners and funds to the parish (see Chapter VI). While the Dean and faculty of the Theological School conducted services on Sunday and did some pastoral visiting, the existence of a congregation in St. John's Chapel was an added burden to the members of the faculty and also caused a natural division in the life of Christ Church parish in which St. John's was located. It was a congregation which people could join who did not wish to become active in parish life. Therefore, many people in Christ Church resented it because they felt it was "a chapel of ease," with Sunday worship but without any daily work involved.
The disadvantages of having two Episcopal Churches in such close competition had long been realized by both the faculty of the Episcopal Theological School and the vestry of Christ Church. Consequently, in 1926, con- versations were started between the vestry and the faculty to see if a merger of the two congregations might not be the happy solution to this problem. In April, 1929, Mr. Evarts, with characteristic vision, believing that the parish would go forward more successfully with a younger man, announced his determination to resign because of his conviction that, regardless of how hard it might be for himself and for his parishioners,"it is for the good of the Parish." The conversations between the faculty and the vestry were renewed in the hope that both congregations might participate in the choice of a new rector and have the merger an accomplished fact before his arrival. This union was effected at the Annual Meeting in January, 1930, and a month later a call was issued to the Rev. Charles Leslie Glenn to minister to the combined con- gregations as rector of Christ Church.
CHAPTER X
THE REV. CHARLES LESLIE GLENN 1930-1940 "A RIGHT TURN TO THE YOUTH"
IN CHOOSING the Rev. Charles Leslie Glenn as the twelfth rector of Christ Church, the parish wisely followed the advice of the Rev. Prescott Evarts and selected a young man. Mr. Glenn, who was only thirty years of age, was happily cognizant of the fact that one of the reasons for the founding of Christ Church parish was in order that its rector "by his doctrine and good example may give a right turn to the Youth who are educated there." 1 Ever since Mr. Glenn's graduation from the Virginia Theologi- cal Seminary four years earlier, he had exhibited such great enthusiasm for working with young men as well as such a marked ability in working with college students, that he had been selected by the National Council of the Church as Secretary for College Work. His reputation throughout the Church made it natural for the parish, at the gate of the Harvard Yard, to turn to him. Further- more, he had recently married Georgiana Sibley, a young woman of great energy and organizing ability, who was fast becoming a leader in religious work with girls. It is hard to imagine the selection of a stronger team to carry on and expand the work of the parish so firmly estab- lished by Mr. Evarts and made doubly strong through the 1 See Appendix A.
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